Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2019/2020

Sickener that. Double kick in the nuts. Can blame Adrian and Gomez but we didn't put away our chances and there were alot. We battered them in that first 90. I was thinking I've not seen Athletico take a beating like that nor us go with such intensity like that in ages. Keeper had a great game too.

Take it on the chin.

Less chance of our players catching the virus travelling around Europe now.

So not all bad.

If they played ****e it would be easier to take. Played absolutely brilliantly for 100 minutes. Scored 2 goals. Hit woodwork twice. String of misses and Oblak saves.

And then the keeper chucks one in and you have to chase the game and do it all over again in extra time.

Top level football lads. It finds certain players out.

That is just about the best the team has played as a unit all season. Amongst the outfield players, I couldn't pick out one bad performer. Heroes, all of them.

But invariably, at key stages in this competition, against big teams, and specifically elite coaches, tiny margins mean more, and key positions mean more. There is a reason we rave about Alisson. There is a reason people rave about Oblak. In pivotal moments, they make big plays, and make it look routine.

The moment was just too much for Adrian, and he couldn't handle the stage. The ball came to him, easy as you like. All game, he controlled that pass and hit it to the left back position, or he booted it in the air. Liverpool had hit the front 2 minutes previously, and he relaxes. He stops thinking clearly, and he doesn't do the thing he's done repeatedly up until then. He then gets down slower than an old man to the shot. For the second, our defence does what they always do in a counter. They cover a side of the goal (Gomez this time), and trust that the keeper can read that the only place the shot can go is near post. Adrian fails. The third was academic, but even on that one, his angles are entirely wrong.

Our sub keeper could not get to the basic level required. Simeone knows he has a superb, elite level goalie, who he can trust to save most shots from 18 yards or more. He can trust his system, and knew if Liverpool were slightly profligate, at worst he'd still be in it at crunch time. Hell, I'd say he'd have been happy with penalties with Oblak v Adrian!

The narrative will be painful now - that we choked and are overhyped. The truth is we'd one player who wasn't at the level required, and when the weakness showed that one time, Atletico took it.

Nothing more, nothing less.

It means nothing in a results based business, but I'm immensely proud of the performance.

Well done to them, and I cant wait to see Hendo hold that Premier League trophy aloft.

Really gutted by that tonight, when Firmino got his goal I was sure we would be going through.

I just don't understand what Adrian was trying to do, there was so much space on his left - there was no reason to play a high-risk pass at that moment. So so avoidable.

I'll be over this tomorrow, but right now it really hurts to disappoint in Europe due to a stupid gk mistake.

Umaro wrote:

I just don't understand what Adrian was trying to do, there was so much space on his left - there was no reason to play a high-risk pass at that moment. So so avoidable.

Who was he actually trying to hit? Was it a pass?

I assumed he tried to leather it and made a mess of it.

If he was actually trying to pick someone out there it was unforgiveable. Atletico had a good press on and Adrian had the whole left hand side open

Blanco100 wrote: »

Jaysus, Rugani from Juve has tested positive for corona virus, Juve squad more than likely forced to isolate now

Makes a mess of the Champions league.

Have a feeling either Juve will be asked to withdraw or the competition will be cancelled for this season... especially if anybody else gets infected.


Upside for this would mean we're still Champions

Lorius Adrian. hang your head in shame.

Really hope we play & win our next 2 PL games.

Because the leagues will all shut down soon.
The PL shoudl release what the plan is going forward.

Oddly, I feel quite indifferent about that defeat. Not happy of course, but not really devastated either to be honest.

We’re going to win the league title probably by the end of March. If you’d offered that to any Liverpool fan back in August, every single one would’ve settled for nothing more than that in the season. 100%.

Won the Champions League last season, about to win the league title this season and that’s progression for us based on how badly the fans want the league title more than anything. It’s pretty clear what the next step is for next season if we want something really ambitious to aim for.

That was a great performance tonight and there’s no doubt this is still one amazing team. Let the jealous rival supporters enjoy this as much as they want, the season has peaked for all of them tonight and it’ll only go downhill from here.

daheff wrote: »

Makes a mess of the Champions league.

Have a feeling either Juve will be asked to withdraw or the competition will be cancelled for this season... especially if anybody else gets infected.


Upside for this would mean we're still Champions

Will probably be an announcement tomorrow morning. I'd imagine the Juve/Lyon game will be postponed while the other three games go ahead.

Draw will be done then and the decision made to postpone for a few months.

Our goals:



so. many. chances.







Will he ever learn his lesson?



He's off his feet when the shot is taken, he can't get near it because of that stupid little hop as Llorente hits it:

The cock up from the pass is fine. That will happen if you play high tempo anti-pressing football at the back. Whether pressured or not, you'll have some player who's probably the team's worst passer trying to move a ball around the most dangerous area of the pitch, and sometimes it'll go awry.

Alisson has misplaced passes dangerously quite a lot of the time, for a player of his reputation.

The differences are that 1. our defence is poorer as a unit than it has been throughout the rest of the season, so we're dog slow to react to it. And to be fair to them, it happened in extra time, so there's an added fatigue element.

2. is Alisson is, even when he drops a bollock, all but immaculate at actually keeping the ball out of the net. By hook or by crook he probably would've kept those shots out.

And that's not Adrian making a balls of it. It's a million little subtle differences in quality between them that make the difference.
Ultimately, in situations like this you hope you get away with not having your best players available. Last season that happened with a frankly bizarre game against Barca which we won without Salah and Bobby. Tonight, the lads up front couldn't put the game away and give us the kind of bullet-dodging effect required to make up for the loss of Alisson.

I've always said that players deserve credit in proportion to their performances based on their level, and not on our expectations of them, or who they're covering for. Adrian did normal Adrian things. He's had some good runs of form this season. He's had times when he's ****ed up. He's had times where he's just not been capapble of goalkeeping at the level we needed at the time.

If a player is pissing about in training, if they're being selfish, or egotistical, or any other number of character flaws that don't include not being better than they're capable of being, then they're fair game for getting ****ed out of it.
The fact of the matter is, we're not likely to ever have a keeper without some seemingly critical flaw as Alisson's backup, so people need to just stop ****ing whining about it.

Cork Boy 53 wrote: »

The UK government are due to make a decision tomorrow about going to the next phase of the fight against the virus. This could include suspending all sports events including the PL.

If they were serious about stopping the spread then they would have suspended all public gatherings before Cheltenham. Hard to know what direction they'll go in.

One of the biggest sporting events in the UK every year and one that would affect Ireland more than a few weeks of soccer with the amount of Irish who travel over.